This graduate textbook introduces the physics and applications of transport in mesoscopic devices and nanoscale electronic systems and devices. Fully updated and contains the latest research in the field, including nano-devices for qubits. Worked examples, problems, solutions and videos are provided to enhance understanding.
Opening with a brief historical account of electron transport from Ohm's law through transport in semiconductor nanostructures, this book discusses topics related to electronic quantum transport. The book is written for graduate students and researchers in the field of mesoscopic semiconductors or in semiconductor nanostructures. Highlights include review of the cryogenic scanning probe techniques applied to semiconductor nanostructures.
Fundamentals of Carrier Transport explores the behavior of charged carriers in semiconductors and semiconductor devices for readers without an extensive background in quantum mechanics and solid-state physics. This second edition contains many new and updated sections, including a completely new chapter on transport in ultrasmall devices and coverage of "full band" transport. Lundstrom also covers both low- and high-field transport, scattering, transport in devices, and transport in mesoscopic systems. He explains in detail the use of Monte Carlo simulation methods and provides many homework exercises along with a variety of worked examples. What makes this book unique is its broad theoretical treatment of transport for advanced students and researchers engaged in experimental semiconductor device research and development.
Recent advances in solid state materials engineering have led to mesoscopic devices with feature sizes that approach the fundamental quantum wavelength of charge carriers in the solid, allowing for the experimental observation of quantum interference. By confining carriers to a single quantum state in one or more dimensions, the degrees of freedom for charge transport can be reduced to achieve new device functionality. This dissertation focuses on mesoscopic electron billiards that combine the aspects of zero, one, and two-dimensional transport into one system. Low-temperature measurement of billiards fabricated within a relatively defect-free semiconductor heterostructure results in ballistic transport, where the electron waves follow classical trajectories and the confining walls play a major role in determining the electron interference. Billiards have been traditionally formed by applying a bias to patterned surface gates atop an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure. Within this system, fractal fluctuations in the billiard conductance are observed as a function of an applied external magnetic field. These fluctuations are tied to quantum interference via an empirical parameter that describes the resolution of energy levels within the billiard. To investigate whether fractal fluctuations are a robust phenomenon intrinsic to billiard-like structures, this study centers on billiards defined by etching walls into a GaInAs/InP heterostructure, departing from the traditional system in both the type of confinement and material system used. It is expected that etched walls will provide a steeper confinement profile leading to well-defined device shapes. Conductance measurements through the one-dimensional leads that couple electrons into the billiard are utilized in combination with a self-consistent Schrodinger/Poisson solution to demonstrate a steeper confinement potential. Experiments are also carried out to determine whether fractal fluctuations persist when billiards are coupled together to form arrays. While fractal scaling is observed in solitary etched billiards, conditions arise in which the fluctuations depart from fractal scaling in both single billiards and arrays. An analysis of the phase-breaking time governing quantum interference reveals a fundamental transition in the interference behavior between single billiards and arrays. Concluding remarks discuss the possibility of the observation of fractal fluctuations in nanoscale particles at higher temperatures.
Advances in semiconductor technology have made possible the fabrication of structures whose dimensions are much smaller than the mean free path of an electron. This book gives a thorough account of the theory of electronic transport in such mesoscopic systems. After an initial chapter covering fundamental concepts, the transmission function formalism is presented, and used to describe three key topics in mesoscopic physics: the quantum Hall effect; localisation; and double-barrier tunnelling. Other sections include a discussion of optical analogies to mesoscopic phenomena, and the book concludes with a description of the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and its relation to the transmission formalism. Complete with problems and solutions, the book will be of great interest to graduate students of mesoscopic physics and nanoelectronic device engineering, as well as to established researchers in these fields.
The advent of semiconductor structures whose characteristic dimensions are smaller than the mean free path of carriers has led to the development of novel devices, and advances in theoretical understanding of mesoscopic systems or nanostructures. This book has been thoroughly revised and provides a much-needed update on the very latest experimental research into mesoscopic devices and develops a detailed theoretical framework for understanding their behaviour. Beginning with the key observable phenomena in nanostructures, the authors describe quantum confined systems, transmission in nanostructures, quantum dots, and single electron phenomena. Separate chapters are devoted to interference in diffusive transport, temperature decay of fluctuations, and non-equilibrium transport and nanodevices. Throughout the book, the authors interweave experimental results with the appropriate theoretical formalism. The book will be of great interest to graduate students taking courses in mesoscopic physics or nanoelectronics, and researchers working on semiconductor nanostructures.
